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Key events
We were expecting to hear what the government was planning to do with fuel efficiency standards at 1pm, but Josh Butler says that has been pushed back to 1.30pm.
Still before question time, but cuts down on the amount of time journalists can ask questions for, before the ministers (Chris Bowen and Catherine King) leave for the chamber.
Handy, that.
Caitlin Cassidy
Private schools a “leech” on public education, Greens say
The party’s spokesperson for schools Penny Allman-Payne made the comments at a conference in Canberra.
The Australia Secondary Principals Association (Aspa) conference is being attended by dozens of educators, the Australian Education Union and the education minister, Jason Clare.
Allman-Payne used her address to point to the overfunding of private schools, including Cranbrook, which banked $650m in the decade to 2022 – 10% of which was funding from state and federal governments.
The Australian private school system is a leech on public education … it doesn’t ‘provide choice’, it leaves parents with no choice, forcing them to decide between sending their kids to an underfunded public school with decaying buildings and staff shortages, or stretching the family budget to put them in a private school.And they get to play by their own rules, whether it’s picking and choosing which students they enrol, or hiring and firing teachers on the basis of their sexuality or marital status.”
The education minister, Jason Clare, also confirmed at the conference that there will be legislation before the end of the year to raise the (somewhat arbitrary) cap of Commonwealth funding to public schools, which was previously 20%.
Labor expects the Coalition will oppose it.
Paul Karp
Migration Amendment to affect 130 people in immigration detention
We’ve been trying to get our head around the Migration Amendment (removals and other measures) bill, which gives the immigration minister the power to direct a non-citizen who is due to be deported “to do specified things necessary to facilitate their removal”.
We’ve discovered based on briefings to the opposition, Greens, and cross-bench that the bill will affect hundreds of people in total including 130 in immigration detention, and more in the community. The cross-bench were told that “less than 1,000” in total are affected and can be subject to directions.
The bill requires non-citizens “to cooperate in efforts to ensure their prompt and lawful removal”, creating criminal penalties that could apply to a class of detainees that includes two plaintiffs before the high court challenging the legality of the detention of people who refuse to cooperate with deportation.
On Tuesday the immigration minister, Andrew Giles, introduced the bill, and the government moved to limit debate to pass the bill in the House of Representatives by question time on Tuesday, a move blasted by the Greens and cross-bench.
The leader of the house, Tony Burke, said this was due to the “strong national interest” and “time sensitivity” involved.
Giles told the House of Representatives those in scope for orders to facilitate deportation include “unlawful non citizens, people without any visa including those in immigration detention, bridging removal pending visa holders, and those who hold a general bridging visa to make “acceptable arrangements to depart Australia”.
Failure to comply with a direction without a reasonable excuse will be a criminal offence carrying a mandatory minimum of 12 months in prison, a maximum of five years, a $93,900 fine, or both imprisonment and a fine.
Sarah Basford Canales
Labor leader sees two avenues to passing religious discrimination bill
Anthony Albanese has told his party room meeting this morning there are two pathways forward on religious discrimination either with the Coalition or the Greens.
A party spokesperson said an MP raised the issue in the Tuesday caucus, praising Albanese for liaising with the opposition on the matter but feeling concerned about the pathway forward for LGBTQ+ children.
Labor has said it has drafted two bills – one amending the Sex Discrimination Act, presumably to tweak or remove blanket exemptions allowing religious schools to discriminate and another to offer people of faith more protection to practise their beliefs.
Without the Coalition’s support, however, Albanese has said it will dump its plans to move forward with the proposals.
When asked about concerns for kids within the LGBTQI+ community, Albanese told his party room:
We are concerned about all forms of discrimination. If the Greens are willing to support the rights of people to practise their faith, then that would be a way forward but we don’t currently have that … I do not want to see a rancorous debate without achieving an outcome.”
Albanese said he did not want to see a woman in Bankstown having a hijab removed, a Jewish student being harassed or a student discriminated against for who they are.
Another party member said there were a “whole array of issues that need to be addressed” and that Labor was right to reject discrimination in all its forms.
As my colleague, Paul Karp, mentioned earlier, the Greens have yet to see the religious discrimination bill, but are pushing the government to follow the Australian Law Reform Commission report and legislate protection for queer students and teachers. They’re expecting a briefing later today.
Rebecca White will be staying on in the parliament as the state member for Lyons
Labor fell well short of the majority needed to govern on its own in Tasmania (18 seats are needed and Labor looks like winning 10) and given the support for Greens and independents it is questionable whether Labor will ever see majority government in the Apple Isle anytime in the future.
But it has also, so far, ruled out any alliance with the Greens. That has left the Liberals, who also fell short of the majority needed (by three or four seats) to form a voting coalition with the cross-bench, most likely the Jacqui Lambie Network and independents. Jeremy Rockliff called the election because he was finding it increasingly difficult to work with two former Liberals who defected to the cross-bench, but now seems to have a harder job on his hands. It seems unlikely the Liberals will see majority government in the future, either, given Tasmania’s voting trends.
It’s an interesting microcosm of what we are starting to see federally (without the Hare Clark system) so it is always worth paying attention to Tasmanian politics.
Tasmanian Labor leader Rebecca White is announcing her resignation as leader:
There’s a great opportunity for whoever steps forward as the next leader of the Labor party to take it to the government. They’ve lost a lot in this election campaign, not just in terms of support across the electorate, but I think credibility too and the Labor party has an opportunity to take it to them and they’re in a good position to take it to the next election.
I’ll stay on in parliament, providing support to my colleagues and to whoever the next leader is and I’ll work beside them to make sure we can bring about the change that I know Tasmania deserves to have a Labor government elected. I’ll do everything we can to support that outcome.
Would you look at that – it seems conservatives aren’t against all fact checks, after all.
With amongst the world’s largest uranium reserves, it’s baffling that Australia is lagging internationally on nuclear energy. Ben Fordham and Ontario’s Energy Minister highlight the flaws in Chris Bowen’s recent comments on the cost of nuclear power. https://t.co/O443creGsc
— Tony Abbott (@HonTonyAbbott) March 26, 2024
The parliament session is now officially under way
First cab off the legislation rank – the deportation bill Paul Karp broke news on and has been updating all morning.
Peter Hannam
Regulator addresses banking summit
Another of the speakers at that AFR banking summit in Sydney was John Lonsdale, chair of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (who has the reassuring if rather grey accountant’s demeanour you probably want for someone in such a role).
APRA, anyway, has begun planning its first financial system stress test – which seems a bit overdue, given GFC, pandemic panics and so forth.
Banks, though, have already had similar test runs, including assuming supply shocks, higher inflation for longer, weaker global growth and so on.
For the domestic scene, inflation is expected to rise to 8.6%, GDP to shrink 4% and the jobless rate to roughly triple to 10%. Property prices would fall 35% over three years. (That’s just a scenario, mind.)
Overall, we found the results encouraging,” Lonsdale said. “All [or the 11 tested] had significant capital to survive the downturn” and had enough in reserve to support the recovery.
Phew.
Lonsdale listed a few other risks (eg a commercial property downturn) before he got to climate threats. Lonsdale noted that the “declining affordability and accessibility” of securing property insurance in many parts of Australia “isn’t only a bad thing for those communities”.
It also impacts the ability of households to get credit to rebuild after disasters, or to repay loans,” he said.
We’re already seeing that in soaring premiums if you live near areas that have flooded of late, or been hit by bushfires. And, given the way we seem determined to energise the atmosphere by loading it with greenhouse gases, we’re likely to get a lot more stress tests, banking and otherwise, in a hotter world.
Paul Karp
David Pocock condemns Labor’s actions on deportation bill
The independent senator has commented on the government’s bill to require immigration detainees and other unlawful non-citizens to cooperate with deportation.
Pocock said:
I’ve got serious concerns about the way Labor is going about this, to give the cross-bench a briefing at 8:45am and say we want this through the parliament in the next day or two.
How are you meant to get across it and consult?
These are important debates, important issues. You want to way up community safety and orderly borders with human rights. It’s so disappointing to see Labor government going down this path. They criticised the Morrison government over a lack of transparency, a lack of process and here we are, they’re doing the exact same thing. So incredibly disappointing.”
Greens senator Janet Rice’s valedictory speech will be this evening
Rice has been in the Senate since 2013 and says a decade on, she believes the time is right to pass the baton on to a younger generation.
I entered the Senate with a mandate to represent Victorians who want to see urgent action on the climate crisis, and who want to see politics work for people, not billionaires and big corporations. Those fights are far from over.
What does it say that in a wealthy country like ours, we are dooming millions of our citizens to debilitating financial stress, poverty and starvation?Right now, many Australians with full-time work are barely scraping by in this cost-of-living crisis, and it’s far worse for those on Centrelink poverty-payments like Jobseeker and Youth Allowance.
Especially in this last term of government, the Greens have secured some significant wins for renters, the environment, and combating climate change. But as I conclude my time in the Senate, I see so much more work that needs doing, and on a larger scale and faster timeline to effectively tackle the cost-of living, housing and climate crises.
Rice says she leaves politics believing in representative democracy – but that people have to make it work for them.
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